A3 interviews RIOS for insider perspective on Manufacturing Challenges and The Supply Chain
Emmet Cole, contributing editor of A3, reached out to Clinton Smith, CTO of RIOS, for perspective and insight for the Manufacturing Challenges and Solutions Series: The Supply Chain.
Redefining Industrial Control: RIOS Talks Agentic Automation with A3
The Association for Advancing Automation (A3) sat down with RIOS to discuss how AI-powered robotics and intelligent workcells are transforming the factory floor.
In this in-depth conversation, the RIOS team shares frontline insights on tackling labor shortages, scaling production, and overcoming operational constraints with agentic systems that perceive, adapt, and improve in real time.
Explore how industrial leaders are leveraging flexible automation and autonomous control to drive performance today—while building a more resilient, future-ready manufacturing ecosystem.
- Blog
- Global supply chain is healthier than in the past three years, with improved supply chain issues in the robotics businesses.
- Supply chain management is a key competence and includes a combination of careful planning, alternative parts qualification, qualifying additional suppliers, and changing suppliers entirely.
- Asia’s economies are expected to expand by 5.3% this year, with China and India alone expected to contribute to more than half of global growth in 2023, according to the IMF.
- RIOS Intelligent Machines still experiences some “lumpiness” in supply chain lead times, but they mitigated supply chain uncertainty through a modular approach to hardware and software, established preorders and commits with suppliers with repeat orders, and by carrying critical components.
- Geopolitical issues, environmental sustainability concerns, and long-term labor shortages are factors to consider apart from the pandemic’s impact on the global supply chain. Companies want to know more supply chain details, including labor and working conditions, source of components, and overall resiliency of the supply chain.
- The reshoring process is underway in the United States, while Europe’s supply chains face additional pressure. In the US, reshoring will increase the need for robotic automation to meet the labor demand shortage. Backorders in the industrial robotics space reflect this growing demand.
Read more of the commentary and full interview at A3.